User blog:Racconcityangel/Tuesday Truths: The Duct Tape Means It's Masterwork.
Hey there, anachronists and bystanders! I'm your loyal mythbuster, Lacey, and this is Tuesday Truths. This week, we will be considering Dungeons and Dragons' strange younger cousin, Live-Action Roleplay: LARP, for short. You know the guy: never seems to be out of character, comes to games dressed in a pointy hat? Or maybe he's the one who attends too many Ren Fairs, or Civil War Reenactments. Either way, LARP never seems quite accepted among other gamers. In a world of dorkiness, it hardly seems possible (to the average person) that there are games that have a worse reputation than D&D; and that the very mention turns your average dork into a snobby, squeamish teenage girl. First of all, it's called live-action because you get up and act out what your character would be doing, within reason. It takes a decent imagination to move and speak as a 7 foot half-orc would (especially if you're 5 feet tall, and a different gender,) and a degree of suspension from reality is vital. From the wiki: : "LARP does not have a single point of origin, but was invented independently by separate groups in the late 1970s and early 1980s.link These groups shared an experience with genre fiction or tabletop role-playing games, and a desire to physically experience such settings. In addition to tabletop role-playing, LARP was preceded and possibly influenced by the Society for Creative Anachronism, childhood games of pretend, play fighting, costume parties, roleplay simulations, Commedia dell’arte, improvisational theatre, psychodrama, military simulations, and historical reenactment groups.link" As a pasttime, LARP is for the actors. People who don't just want to picture their character, but to be them, for a short while. The same principle that drives people to reenact the Battle of Gettysburg. If that were all, everyone would think LARPing was your average recreational sport but, as with D&D, it has its freaky side. Let's break it down. Myth #1: LARPers are people who can't distinguish fantasy from reality. This is possibly the most dangerous belief that your average person can carry about gaming in general. This is considered a mental difficiency that ruins lives, even if fewer gamers are actually lost in their particular game than most people think. On the contrary (and probably because of past controversy,) most LARP organizations maintain a watch over their players, and tend to weed out the ones that seem to go too far into La-La Land. When the game is over, it's over. There will always be a bit of soreness over a bad call, or a lost character, but your average player doesn't commit suicide or erect a gravestone for their poor Blackleaf. 95% of role-players, by my guess, are normal people by day. With LARP being essentially acting, do we begrudge Bruce Willis for thinking like his characters from time to time? Myth #2: LARP can become dangerous to players and bystanders. There are several types of LARPs out there, and many will use foam weapons in the style of Dagorhir, (think medival reenactment.) Which means that, unlike D&D, you will make physical contact with the costumed fellow playing the baddies. From our roots as little cowboys and indians, and the days of playground warfare with pebbles and such, parents have been trying to protect us from harm, sometimes to an extreme. Finally, we have a game where we can wear ARMOR, and people fear the potential danger? Most boffers (foam weapon gamers) are fastigious about how weapons are designed, not to harm, but to let the other player know they've been hit. Groups will require a certain build, such as no wooden cores, or no granade weapons harder than rubber or bean bags. YES, players still get hurt from time to time, mostly minor falls and overheating. Nothing worse than pee-wee football. As for the danger to bystanders, this fits more closely with myth #1: Any LARPer who takes the game too seriously, or cannot disconnect is capable of trying to involve the mundanes in a scene, or at worst, a battle. An invasion of space is one warning away from inviting disaster during any public outting, but screaming at a biker to, "get thee back, foul troll!!" is bound to invoke confusion, and probably physical harm. Sometimes, a group of LARPers (the nonpsychotic kind) simply confuses or upsets the people around them, weither by talk of occult things or strange costuming, and altercations are possible. Most LARP orgs, just like with the weapons, have strict rules when it comes to playing in public. They strive to keep things mellow and discreet. Or, when it comes to full-scale battle reenactments, cordoned off and guarded. Aside from these major two, there are several lesser myths that only beg a few words. *Myth: Vampire LARPers think they're really bloodsuckers. Truth: Only the ones who think role-playing is something couples do in the bedroom. *Myth: You have to dress up. Truth: Not all groups require costumes; some require only imagination. *Myth: LARP is full of drama and must be serious. Truth: You can LARP anything, pretty much, so if you want to do a mock-space-spaghetti-western-clown-wrangling game, go right ahead. *Myth: LARPers are all lonely, isolated dorks, or high school drama geeks. On the contrary, LARPing is social and creative and can be played by anyone, of any age. I pretended to be a dinosaur when i was little, now i just pretend to be a cooler dinosaur with a 1d8 bite attack. Difference? Very little, i'm enjoying it. If you've always been curious, but never had the oppertunity to involve yourself in a LARP game, there are several resources online for starting games, and literally hundreds of TYPES of games, game organizations, and players in the world. It's not something to be embarrassed about if you want to get up and play a game that's a little less funyuns and dew, and a little more battle frenzy or politically driven. I'm a proud player of White Wolf's One World By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade) Live-Action Roleplaying game. Locally known as the Edge of Chaos. Aside from that, i fully endorse Live-Action games as tool for social bonding and learning, as well as fun. Before you judge, consider visiting a LARP game, or consulting with the players rather than listening to the rumors and stereotypes, which are most often exaggerations. Until next week, Ogres. Racconcityangel 19:21, July 13, 2010 (UTC) Category:Tuesday Truths Category:Blog posts